The talk I gave at BRAVE on 15th May 2014

1. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
GETTING LOADS OF VISITS FROM GOOGLE

2. NOISY LITTLE MONKEY
• With a unique hybrid of search optimisation, social media
marketing, creative flair and technical wizardry, we drive
traffic, enquiries and sales
Specialising in online activity, maximising conversions from offline
SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

3. consult
research
traindo
report

4. Over 80 businesses, charities and gov‟t bodies in EU, USA & Africa
WHO’D TRUST A MONKEY?

5. review
links
contentsocial
brand

7. This is Google‟s search page in 2001. Getting no 1 on here was easy.
NO 1 ON GOOGLE ISN’T THE GOAL TODAY

8. Getting No 1 on here? Which bit actually is No 1?
THINGS. NOT STRINGS.

9. INTRODUCING THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmQl6VGvX-c

10. BACK TO SKOOL
HOW DOES GOOGLE WORK?

11. HOW DOES GOOGLE SEARCH WORK?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs

12. LINKS?
The bits of a web page that, when clicked, will take you to another web page or fire off an event

13. INTERNAL LINKS
When page a links to page b, page a bestows some of its authority onto page b
www.yoursite.com/page-a
www.yoursite.com/page-b

14. OUTBOUND LINKS
You‟re saying to your visitors (and Google), “Hey, you can trust this other site, because I do”
www.yoursite.com/page-a
www.anothersite.com/page-b

15. YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD THIS ONE
“THE MORE LINKS YOU HAVE,
THE HIGHER YOU WILL RANK”

16. THAT’S BULL!
http://www.flickr.com/people/oli/

17. INBOUND LINKS
Cool! So long as this other site is trusted and not nasty / spammy
www.yoursite.com/page-a
www.anothersite.com/page-b

18. RECIPROCAL LINKS
Beloved of „SEO‟ companies.
Unless there is a „real world‟ partnership , you could be penalised by Google
www.yoursite.com/page-a
www.anothersite.com/page-b

19. Your
site
BBC
lots of links to
it, so it has lots
of authority
Local Chamber of
Commerce
Few people link to
it, but those that do
are trustworthy
Link Farm
Loads of links
to it, but mainly
reciprocal and
quite a few
questionable
links
LINKS PASS AUTHORITY
Cultivate links from trusted websites, they pass more authority

20. Your
site
BBC
Local
blog
Business
partner
Local
press
Trade
magazine
Local Chamber of
Commerce
LINKS PASS AUTHORITY
A diverse, but relevant, set of linking websites is best

21. DON’T WASTE HOMEPAGE LINKS
Don‟t waste „Google juice‟ on privacy policy, terms and conditions, etc
www.yoursite.com/index
www.yoursite.com/stuff-the-customer-buys

22. GET INBOUND LINKS TO IMPORTANT PAGES
Your homepage will always rank well, so give deeper, important pages some love
www.yoursite.com/stuff-the-customer-buys
www.anothersite.com/page-b

23. KEEP IT NATURAL
• Number 5 on Google UK
• Number 1 on Google UK
• Number 8 on Google UK
http://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=trampolines
Is this
reflected
on news
sites, social
media, sear
ch volumes?

24. HOW TO GET MORE LINKS
QUALITY AND RELEVANCE ARE KEY

25. HTTP://WWW.OPENSITEEXPLORER.ORG/
APPLY COMMON SENSE TO THESE RESULTS!
WHO LINKS TO YOUR COMPETITORS?

26. GET INVOLVED, GET LINKS
• Discussion forums (be a really useful engine)
• Research (white papers, or mine your data)
• Social bookmarking (reddit, stumbleupon, etc)
• Comment on industry blogs
• Why not start your own blog?
Because your visitors and Google love fresh, up to date content!

27. GET INVOLVED, GET LINKS
• Discussion forums (be a really useful engine)
• Research (white papers, or mine your data)
• Social bookmarking (reddit, stumbleupon, etc)
• Comment on industry blogs
• Why not start your own blog?
Because your visitors and Google love fresh, up to date content!

28. GOOGLE READS ALL YOUR CONTENT
QUALITY AND RELEVANCE ARE KEY (AGAIN)

29. gA site that is accessible makes the web a better place for everyone. This is a good thing.
HOW DOES GOOGLE DETERMINE RELEVANCE?
Looks pretty, AND made with code and text = Accessible, good experience
Looks pretty, but is all images.
(Even the words, they are part of the image, as if you‟d taken a photograph of a
motorway sign).
Not computer readable = Inaccessible, poor experience
The code and text returns below, but this is really, really bad.

30. http://www.noisylittlemonkey.com/top-5-trustworthy-and-free-seo-resources/
HOW DOES GOOGLE DETERMINE RELEVANCE?

31. gDon‟t change your domain name to match a popular search without setting up 301 redirects first
DOMAIN LEVEL INDICATORS

32. gIf your website isn‟t built like this, you need to get a new website. Seriously.
SEARCH TERMS IN THE FILE PATH

33. This also shows on Google‟s results page, so make it snappy, useful and attract the click!
SEARCH TERMS IN THE PAGE TITLE

34. Make sure your site is accessible for blind people – label all images
SEARCH TERMS IN THE ALT TEXT

35. gMake sure your site is accessible for blind people – this mustn't be an image!
AND don’t waste the space by saying ‘Welcome to our site’
SEARCH TERMS IN THE PAGE HEADLINE

36. Use synonyms and keep it readable for humans. Don‟t just stuff search terms in here
SEARCH TERMS IN THE COPY

37. View Source to see it. Right click white space in Chrome / Firefox / Safari and
select “View Source”
A META DESCRIPTION WHICH ATTRACTS
THE CLICK
Becomes this on Google

38. YOUR PAGE MATCHES A SEARCH
WHEN IT IS GOOD QUALITY AND HIGHLY RELEVANT

40. I don’t know how people search
http://www.flickr.com/people/el_momento_i_sitio_apropiados/
model: su novia

41. ghttp://www.google.com/trends/
MAYBE I CAN HELP?
Compare
volumes…
ignore the
numbers

42. g
Thanks, Google!
http://www.flickr.com/people/el_momento_i_sitio_apropiados/
model: su novia

43. Search Demand Curve courtesy of SEOmoz
AIM LOW(ISH). SERIOUSLY.

44. YOU NEED TO BE A WEBMASTER
GOOGLE & BING REQUEST IT

45. I FIND YOUR LACK OF SITEMAPS DISTURBING

46. WEBMASTER TOOLS
• Sign up in YOUR name (not your web developer‟s)
• Follow the instructions to verify your site
• On some CMS you can verify yourself
– If not, send the files to your developer
• Submit Sitemap.xml to both (http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/)
• Learn some cool stuff!
GOOGLE & BING WANT TO HELP YOU
www.google.com/webmasters/ & www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

47. GOOGLE IS WATCHING YOU
AND YOUR FRIENDS

48. Word cloud of @NoisyMonkey‟s last 20 tweets
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

49. Word cloud of Noisy Little Monkey‟s Facebook page in January
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

50. Word cloud of Noisy Little Monkey‟s Google+ page
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

51. Word cloud of Noisy Little Monkey‟s Blog for the last 6 months
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

52. Sharing diagram of http://theoatmeal.com/sopa
WHO SHARES YOUR STUFF?

53. BEHAVE LIKE A TRUSTED BRAND
NOT A „THIN AFFILIATE‟

54. Have real addresses, geographic phone numbers
REAL BRANDS

55. gHave real about us pages, that link to relevant social networks
REAL BRANDS

56. gHave employees on LinkedIn (& www.freebase.com)
REAL BRANDS

57. gAre paid up members of trade associations and pay for link(s) on Yell
REAL BRANDS

58. Get branded search volume because of offline marketing & communications
REAL BRANDS

59. Google doesn‟t mess with it‟s results pages lightly. There are NO ADS!
GET YOUR BUSINESS ON GOOGLE+

60. REAL BRANDS GET THEIR SOCIAL ON
BUT THAT‟S A WHOLE OTHER KETTLE OF SLIDES

61. http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/building-search-engine-of-future-one.html
THINGS. NOT STRINGS.

62. TAKE AWAYS

63. UNDERSTAND THAT SEO = N
Great content is what gets you great rankings
http://www.stochasticgeometry.ie/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/snakeoil.jpg?w=257

64. TAKE AWAYS
• Do search term research (Google Insights)
• Insert relevant search terms on each page
• Create great content - attract links & mentions
• Seed new content socially
• Improve pages that cause exits

65. WANT MORE? DIGITAL BUFFET
http://digitalbuffet.co.uk – Sign up tomorrow 
JUNE 26th – ARNOLFINI – SPEAKERS FROM…

66. WANT THE SLIDES?
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